


The Waiting Room

by Broken_Clover



Category: Guilty Gear
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Angst with a Happy Ending, Closure, Existentialism, Gen, Intergenerational friendship, Moving On, Purgatory, Sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 23:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20217862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover
Summary: An endless white void, two lost spirits, and a bottle of scotch.





	The Waiting Room

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm so very happy that this one got finished. I've had it in drafts for a while, but ever since the new trailer dropped, I've pretty much been working on it nonstop! Partially because this is supposed to be an in-between for Rev and the upcoming game. Sort of a 'missing scene' kind of thing, if you will.

The sky was crystal, shimmering in iridescent fractals that shone in every color of the rainbow and then some. Broken, but whole. Instinctively, he felt like staring up at it would hurt his eyes, but the light was soothing instead. Not a single cloud, only color.

The sound of water lapped somewhere in the distance. The scent of salt was equally distant, totally imperceptible. That too was an odd sort of comfort. The noise was low and gentle, sweeping back and forth in its own rhythm.

Axl stood up.

There was no ocean, as far as the eye could see. In fact, the ground looked remarkably plain. Too plain. It seemed too organic for something so artificial-looking. Where was he?

Unfortunately, it seemed like life was as obstinate towards him as usual, and offered no answers. He turned back and forth, trying to determine if there was anything to be seen, or if he was going to be stuck wandering around.

“Hmm. Well, I suppose it’s nice to see someone else in here.”

Shocked, he spun around, immediately noticing a table that definitely had not been there a second ago...or had it?

He didn’t have much time to mull over the thought. He was more focused on the familiar figure sitting at the little table’s head, sipping from a glass calmly.

“Wh- you?”

“Crude wording. Yes. ‘Me.’” Bedman placed his glass down on the tabletop, gesturing to another chair that Axl was _very_ sure hadn’t existed until that moment. “Care to take a seat?”

“Sure?” With a brief moment of hesitation, the man sat down. Experience told him to be wary, but there was no point in being rude. He looked back up at the multicolored sky “I’m back here again? Man…” He ran a hand through his hair. “I figured I’d finally started getting this stuff down.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘getting stuff down?’” The boy tilted his head.

“Y’know...getting better at the teleporting thing, not accidentally wandering into other people’s mind-scapes or...whatever it’s called.” Axl propped himself up on one arm. “Unless you brought me here for some reason?”

“Unfortunately, this current turn of events was not my doing.”

“Shit.”

“You seem remarkably unfazed.” Bedman moved to fill a second glass that Axl was 100% sure hadn’t existed until that moment. “I’ll admit, Mr. Low, that you’ve exceeded my expectations once again.” He held out a cup. “Drink?”

“Sure, I guess…” Axl looked over the glass as it was handed to him, peering at the amber liquid inside. “Scotch?”

“Mmhm. It’s your favorite, isn’t it?”

“Should you be drinking this stuff? Aren’t you like, 12?”

“Does it really matter? I’m dead.”

“...Wait.” He waved his hands. “Wait, hold up, go back a second. What did you just say?”

The boy’s expression went flat. “Ah. That makes more sense, then.”

“What does?” Axl would admit he was already confused, and just a little bit annoyed.

Bedman gave a tired sigh, gesturing to the void surrounding them. “Well, welcome to purgatory. At least, that’s what I think it is. Nobody else around, so not like I had anyone to fill me in on the details.”

“Purgatory...You’re _dead!?_”

“Has that...not been established?” He seemed genuinely baffled. “...Perhaps this is hell, after all.”

Trying to process things was making his head hurt. “Okay. Purgatory. Th-this is a joke, right? Or some sorta weird hangover dream? I can’t actually be _dead_, can I? Haha, how in the bloody _fuck_ DID I GET HERE?!”

The boy gave another sigh, shaking his head. “I honestly can’t say my reaction was more tactful. This isn’t going to be the most comfortable, Low, but I need you to do me a favor and think.”

Axl gave an uncharacteristic glare. “I don’t need to listen to this.”

“Please believe me, I’m doing this for your benefit. Think hard. What’s the last thing you remember? It’s hard to keep your thoughts together, but everything will clear up when you just remember what happened.”

“Last thing I remember? Why…” When he started to think about it, it was strangely hard to focus. Why couldn’t he think straight? Had he gotten drunk, and that’s why everything felt so fuzzy? He just had to think...

Images flashed through his head in a rapid-fire frenzy. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the rush, to no avail. It was almost too much to process all at once. Meeting with Sol at the bar. Wandering around aimlessly, trying to figure out if he was willing to risk the rest of the world for his own little snippet of happiness. Watching the others fight the Universal Will. Dragging time to a halt at the last possible moment, knowing that maybe it didn’t matter in the end, but all that mattered in that one second was making Sol happy. Growing more and more exhausted as he spoke, silently willing Sol to move before it was too much to handle and he couldn’t do anything anymore. Watching his vision fill with light, watching his friend descend from the sky, the body of a distantly familiar person in his arms…

And then, nothing.

“I...pushed too hard, didn’t I?” Though it was distant now, the pressure on all sides that threatened to consume him left a dull ache in his body. He didn’t know if it had crushed him, or if the sheer amount of exhaustion had been too much to recover from. Did he leave behind a body to be found?

Bedman looked at him calmly, with just a hint of sympathy buried in it. “I honestly didn’t think you would be coming here for a while.”

“I should be sayin’ that about you. Kids aren’t supposed to die.”

The boy shrugged, going back to his drink. “I don’t particularly think of myself as one at this point. I presume what I’ve done isn’t very childlike. A monster is a monster, regardless of age.”

Axl was already lost again. “Monster?”

He wasn’t always the most astute, but he caught sight of how Bedman’s hands trembled as he held his glass, despite the effort he put into sounding calm. “Of course. Isn’t that an apt descriptor? Monster, demon, devil, fiend, evil, all of the above? Well-suited for someone like me.”

Something definitely wasn’t adding up. Axl knew that the boy wasn’t exactly morally upstanding, but the last time they’d spoken, he had seemed very confident in his own motivations, and very firm that no lasting harm would result from his actions in the end. If his plans had succeeded, why would he be in such low spirits? Or even dead in the first place? None of it made sense.

“What about your ‘Absolute World?’” He asked. “Did you get what you were hoping for?”

It seemed like that wasn’t the right question to ask, based on the sharp flinch he got in response. “Kid?”

Bedman refused to meet his gaze. He took a slow swallow. “I...I’ve done something awful. Something impossibly awful. All this time, I though I was doing what was right, but…”

“Slow down a second. What exactly happened?”

“Valkyrie Garden.” He replied quietly. “The assassin and the robot destroyed my bedframe. Woke me up. I thought The Universal Will had come to help me…”

Axl didn’t like where this was going, but he pressed on. “And?”

“She...she _lied_ to me. None of this was about her trying to help humanity. She never wanted to help people. All she was trying to do was kill them all and make her own artificial replicas. Everything she told me was false. None of this was noble, or kind, or merciful. It was all a lie!”

A sudden pulse of air blew back hair and managed to knock over the glasses on the table. When it settled, the void was near-silent, aside from the distant waves, and stifled sniffs.

“I thought I would be able to return to the Backyard. But I…” Axl watched him slump. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t even move. Everything hurt so much. 

Then it all just went away, and I woke up in here.”

Axl had no idea what to say. What could he say? It was hard to find any positive spin to put on this. The kid looked like he was about a second away from bursting into tears, so trying to say something and messing it up royally would be one of the few ways that he could think to make this situation even worse.

Awkwardly, he reached out and started picking up the glasses, finding one of the less-messy parts of the table to set them down on.

“Are you...are you sure this isn’t some weird time nonsense? I’ve seen some weird stuff before. This kinda reminds me of-”

“If it was, I would be able to leave. Can’t you feel it?” His voice splintered. “There’s nothing here.”

Axl leaned back in his chair, hands in his lap. “So...purgatory.” He sent another look to the shimmering sky. “Any idea when we get let out of here? Some sort of magical courtroom we gotta deal with? Haven’t been to church in a while, hope that won’t knock off too many points for me. Unless we’re stuck here? Which in that case, I hope you can teach me how to make more scotch-”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Bedman shouted, burying his face in his hands. “I-I...I don’t know. I have no power. No magic. No anything. W-why-” He looked back up, defeated. “Why are you so calm about this?”

The man thought for a moment, ultimately shrugging and sighing. “Well, as much as I liked not being dead, I can’t really say my life was all that great.” He poured himself another glass of alcohol. “Everything in the future was so much different than what I was used to. Even if I tried to get used to it, it wouldn’t be long before I got tossed off to another time period- never the one I wanted to go back to, though. So, hey, if we ever get out of here, I might be able to see Megumi again. My folks, too! Haven’t seen ‘em since I was about your age. I’d be happy to introduce ya.”

Bedman looked at him mutely. A smile twitched at the end of his mouth, despite the lines of tears still running down his face.

“Even now, you’re still such a damn optimist.” He said between laughs.

“Oh yeah?”

“You really think I’m headed anywhere near there?” At that, he was crying again, curling up in his chair. “After all of this? I’m going to hell! I don’t even know where we are now! We’re trapped in the middle of _nowhere!_”

“Hey, hey, easy,” Axl tried to defuse the situation as best he could. “Breathe. I’m sure there’s a reason for this. Just try to stay calm.”

“HOW CAN I STAY CALM?!”

“Just- just breathe, okay? Panicking isn’t going to get us anywhere.” It was getting hard not to get riled up, himself. How could he get the kid to calm down? “You’re gonna see your sister again, isn’t that good?”

Asking seemed to work, though Axl had never seen someone look more confused in his life.

“What…?”

“Your sister? Delilah?” He cocked his head. “Wasn’t that your whole goal, to see her again? Not exactly the best way to do it, but you’re getting what you were hoping for, aren’t you?”

Bedman stared at the floor, silent for a moment. “I’m not sure where she is. I don’t know if she’s alive, or dead, or anything. I knew if I was able to rewrite the world alongside the Universal Will, I’d be able to see her again, regardless of where she was. I don’t know if I’ll ever s-see her again- o-or what if I do and she _hates_ me because of everything I did, o-or-”

Shit, this was going south again. “I- I’m sure you’ll see her! We’ll just have to find her! I can help out, I don’t think I’m gonna be doing anything for a long while…”

It seemed like that was enough placation, at least for the moment. The confusion and panic were gone, but there was still a hint of sadness in his companion’s eyes.

“You said you lost your family?”

It was Axl’s turn to be uncomfortable. “Yeah, heh, I did, didn’t I?”

“Can I ask what happened?”

“Well...broke London slums aren’t exactly the best at keeping people alive. Figured it’d be me who kicked it first, but surprise, I guess? I mean, dad pretty much stopped trying after we lost mum, gonna have to give ‘im a real piece of my mind for leaving me by myself, haha…”

The look he got in response was one of horror. “Oi, it’s okay, I’m not that upset about it anymore. I kinda reacted the same way after I got stuck in the future and lost Megumi. Still a dick move to leave a 14-year-old in charge but eh, what are you gonna do?”

Okay, that was not reassuring him at all. “Um, what about yours? Don’t think you mentioned anything about your folks, mind tellin’ me about them?”

“I wish I had anything to say, really.” Bedman shrugged. “I don’t remember much. My memories were a bit fuzzy, even before...before I died. It’s been so long since I’ve seen them.”

“Did you lose them, too?”

“In a non-euphemistic way, yes. They may be alive, or not. I don’t know where they are. I doubt they know where I am, either.”

“Wait.” Axl interrupted. “Your family? They...don’t know where you are?”

Bedman shook his head. “No. At least, not as far as I know. Truthfully, I hope they don’t.”

“What?”

He gave a quiet sigh. “I don’t think anybody should remember me. They don’t need to know I existed at all.”

Axl immediately pushed his chair back, standing up and planting his hands on the table. “The hell are you talking about? Why would you say that?”

In spite his outburst, he only got a look of calm resignation. “The only legacy I can leave behind is one of suffering. Maybe it’s greedy of me, but I don’t want to be remembered for how I hurt people.”

“That’s...that isn’t-”

“Am I wrong?” The boy’s gaze hardened.

Hesitantly, the man sat back down.

“That’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t. You’d know that better than most, wouldn’t you, Low?”

“Psh. So what? Doesn’t mean I gotta be happy about it.” Axl scowled, looking off into the endless expanse of nothing that surrounded them. He eventually slumped back in his chair, staring at the sky. “Whoever’s in charge of this shit has a sick sense of humor.”

“I never expected that the afterlife would look like this. I don’t see the practicality.”

That got a laugh. “Kiddo, you are the only person I know who would complain about the furniture in purgatory.”

“Alright, I suppose you’ve got me there.” Bedman offered a smile of his own. “I’ll admit the colors are pretty. I just presumed there would be far more people here.”

Axl shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe we just got the cool purgatory, special invite only.”

“That isn’t a thing!...is it?”

“Hey, until a little while ago I didn’t even think purgatory was real. Learn something new every day!”

“I can imagine modern theologists would be very intrigued by the things we’ve seen here. I-...” His expression fell again.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Bedman sighed. “No matter what sort of positive spin you try to put on this, the fact still remains that we’re both dead. The end. Curtains closed. There’s nothing else here. This is just the end, and we’re stuck here.”

“You seem awfully convinced that there’s nothing else. But I mean, come on.” Axl gestured to the void around them. “There’s something here, even if it’s just the two of us. There’s probably somewhere else to go from here. If there’s a purgatory, it makes sense that there’s something after that. That’s the whole thing about purgatory, right? Only makes sense.”

“That’s not sound logic! You’re making claims you can’t back up!”

“Yeah, I guess I am. But isn’t staying hopeful better than assuming the worst?”

Bedman didn’t have an answer for that. He merely shrugged. “I don’t know if we can leave. I don’t know if that’s possible. Why do you keep trying?”

“Why d’you keep giving up? Yeesh, now you’re bumming me out.” Axl stood back up, spinning on his heels to get a good long look at the absolute nothing that surrounded the both of them. “Well, at least it’s…”

He trailed off. Upon second glance, there still wasn’t anyone else with them, but he could swear that he could almost make out the faintest of murmurs. “Hello?”

No reply. Axl looked up towards the crystal sky. “Hello?”

It wasn’t quite the same as before, not exactly. Something faint and shadow slid along the ends of the fragments, dappling the tiniest bit of darkness on the bright lights. The distant murmurs continued.

“Why are you talking to yourself, have you gone mad?” Bedman took a break from his sulking to send Axl a confused glare.

“I think...I think there’s something out there.” Axl looked back up at the sky. “Didn’t you hear it?”

“No?”

“I can hear it. Voices. Something’s up there.” He cupped hands around his mouth. “Hey! Anyone up there?! Can you hear me?! He- !”

_”Got a complete fracture on at least two ribs-”_

_“-no signs of any-”_

_“-endoscopy turned up with-”_

_“Can’t get a consistent pulse, it keeps skipping-”_

_“C’mon, just keep trying-!”_

“Low?” A clear voice drowned out the half-coherent chatter. “You’re spacing out, are you alright?”

Axl didn’t respond. He pulled back the sleeve of his jacket and pressed a pair of fingers to his wrist. 

There was nothing at first. He was almost about to pass it off as some weird fluke when he felt a single throb. It was followed by another, then another, following no consistent rhythm as it skipped and stuttered. Unstable as it was, there was no denying it. 

He still had a pulse.

“Gimme your wrist.”

“Huh? But why-”

Axl grabbed a thin arm, fumbling to find the right spot that pressed up against the veins. The initial resistance made it difficult. He felt around, try to feel for something, anything. When that didn’t work, he all but grabbed the boy by the neck.

“Wh- I- what are you doing?!” Bedman squirmed in his grip, trying to pull loose.

“Hey-hey-hey, hold still, I’m checking something-”

Little by little, he slowly felt his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t feel anything, anywhere. Nothing under the skin. Nothing moving. Nothing alive.

“I can still feel my heart beating, but you…” Axl didn’t know what to say.

Bedman finally seemed to understand. The look of realization didn’t last long, immediately crumpling into a distant, empty stare.

“Of course. I’m just...a pile of dust now, floating in the breeze. There’s nothing of me to bring back.”

Axl was conflicted. He wanted to offer some sort of comfort, but a spark of hope was overriding everything else. “Does that mean...I can leave? I have another chance?”

His thoughts were quickly becoming a hazy rush. He could go back. He had another chance. He could still try to find something to do with his life. What exactly? He didn’t know. There were so many possibilities he could barely process them all.

He was brought back by the feeling of a hand on his sleeve. And suddenly, Axl felt his heart shatter.

“You’re leaving…”

“I-I…” What could he say? There was no real way to phrase it in a way that was positive for the both of them. He wanted to feel overjoyed, but the sight of Bedman’s expression of pure hollow despair made it hard to feel much of anything.

“I d-don’t-” For a moment, his voice cracked. “I don’t want to be alone. I’m scared. I don’t want to be all by myself again. Please.”

Axl fumbled for his words. “Calm down, you don’t gotta-”

“It’s happening _again!_” The wind suddenly whipped up. The sudden force made the table overturn with a loud bang, and it shattered into white shards. He just barely dodged the sharp edges by tossing himself to the floor.

“Jesus, what the bloody- ah!” Once again he found himself cut off. The gale was enough to send him skidding across the smooth floor. He struggled to try and cling on without anything to grip.

“Every time, every time, I’m always alone!” In the center of the cyclone, Bedman screamed, covering his face with his hands. “No matter what I do, nothing changes!”

“What are you doing?!” Axl shouted back.

“This isn’t what I wanted! All I wanted to do was make everything better, but nothing happened!”

“Kid, c’mon, you’ve gotta stop this!” He wasn’t even sure if he could be heard. He extended a hand out. A shard of the table slashed through the back of his glove and left a red line.

“Why did I try?! Why do I ever try?! Nothing ever changes! Everyone leaves me behind! It always ends the same way!”

“Bedman, listen!” Droplets of blood wicked off into the wind. The white void was steadily losing its light, fading into stormy gray. Axl dragged himself on the floor, slowly inching closer. “Look at yourself! Do you see what you’re doing?! You have to stop!”

_”GO AWAY!”_ Another burst of wind sent the man sliding again, rolling over until he managed to get a weak grip on the floor again.

“_You’re_ the one who didn’t want me to leave in the first place!” Axl suddenly felt something click in his thoughts. “So that’s why you do it, huh? That’s why you treat people like this? Why you push everyone away? Why you tried to push _me_ away?”

“SHUT UP!” Tears ran down his face, but Bedman had a look of pure hatred as he pulled his hands away. The wind grew sharper.

Axl managed to drag himself a few inches closer. “You call people names, and you say awful things to them, because you know they’re just going to leave you anyway!”

“STOP IT!”

“So you push them away first, so then they can’t. It’s easier if you’re the one doing it. Then it doesn’t feel as lonely? Because you’re the one in control. You don’t like it when things are out of your control.”

_”NO!_ You don’t know _ANYTHING_ about me!”

“I know you’re scared. And you’ve been scared for a long time, haven’t you? So that’s why you do all this.” The roaring wind threatened to make his eardrums burst. “But you have to know this is wrong! You think everything is going to end the same way, so you never give it a chance to change!”

_”I’M NOT LISTENING!”_ A fresh round of tears ran down the boy’s face.

“Please! I know it hurts, but you have to stop! How can anything get better if you don’t give it the chance? You’re so wrapped up in your own fear of being alone that you can’t let anybody in. You never want to get left behind again, so you don’t even let anyone close to you.” The wind ripped the bandanna from his hair, but Axl still dragged himself. “But in the end, you’re no better for it. You’re just lonely all over again, and you know that you can’t blame anyone else but yourself for driving everyone away.”

“You’re wrong! You’re _wrong!_” Bedman shouted, anger slowly crumbling into sobs. “It doesn’t change...I can never change how the story ends…”

“So why not let it go?” The man asked. “You don’t have to keep doing this. Can’t you see it’s just hurting you? Nobody wins. All you get is the same disappointment, over and over again.”

“I…”

For a moment, the breeze started to lull. With an inhuman amount of effort, Axl lunged forward, managing to grab onto a small hand.

The world exploded into light.

++++++

The sound of waves had grown closer. The shards of color hung over a crystal-clear ocean, lapping gently at the shore.

The hammock swayed back and forth in an invisible breeze. Axl could feel a weight settled against him. When he looked down, he found Bedman curled up against his side, staring out dully. Axl moved a hand up to start stroking his hair.

“Why do people have to leave?”

The man took a deep breath. “Sometimes...sometimes people leave us, even the ones that we really care about. They die, or they move, or you just drift apart over time. It happens. And it hurts so, so much. We ask what we did wrong, but sometimes, it just happens, anyway.”

“I don’t like that.”

“Nobody does. That’s why it hurts. But trying to bring people back just hurts you more.”

“Then how do I make it stop hurting?”

“I’ve spent a long time asking myself that. And I think I’ve finally got an answer. You move on.”

“I...I can’t do that. I don’t want to.”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t want to, either. It hurts even more than holding onto the memory.”

“I d-don’t want to forget…”

“No, no, see, that’s not it. Moving on isn’t forgetting. It’s keeping their memory in your heart, letting it be a part of you. You go out and create new experiences, but still keep fond memories of the people you miss. Make new friends, but remember the old ones. Don’t you think Delilah would have wanted you to live your life?”

“…”

“Heh. I know Megumi would kick my ass if she found out I’d been moping for so long. She wasn’t one to mess around with her feelings. She did cry sometimes, but she was always able to bounce back up with fire in her eyes. Part of the reason I admired her so much.”

“It seems hypocritical for you to try and tell me this.”

“Yeah. I know. I guess even when you’re a grown-up, there’s still things to learn about life. I just wish I’d known that before all of this. Maybe I wouldn’t have spent so long being a damn sad sack. What good did that do anyone? Didn’t help me out at all.”

“...Why do I always end up alone?”

“I dunno if that’s something I can answer. Sometimes life just tosses us a bad hand. Usually I’d just say you gotta roll with the punches and work with what you’ve got. But you’re right. It isn’t fair that it happened to you...and I’m sorry.”

The weight against him went slack. “I can’t change anything now, why do you bother? Why not just let me fester in hell?”

“Come on, I think you deserve some kind of closure. I dunno about god, but I know that if they’re real, they can’t be that much of a dick. You’re a kid. At the end of the day, you were supposed to be allowed to make friends and grow up.”

“Heh. You really are an idealist, aren’t you?”

“One of my many talents.” He smirked. “But hey, you could be totally wrong! Won’t know where you’re going or what it’s like until you get there. Could be endless fields of flowers for you and Delilah to play in together. Maybe she’s been waiting for you the whole time. You’d never know if you stayed here for all eternity.”

“B-but I know what’s here.” The boy replied. “I know what this place is like. It’s safer.”

“Safe, and what?”

“Huh?”

“Safe and what else? Would you rather take an eternity of safe sameness over finding out what’s across the horizon? Aren’t you even a little bit curious?”

Axl got no reply. “I know it’s scary. I’d be scared too. But for once, I think you just gotta take a leap of faith. It’s just like meeting someone new. Maybe they’ll hurt you, but maybe they’ll end up being the person you spend the rest of your life with. You’ll never know until you take that step forward.”

For a moment, they just sat in silence. The wind was calm, sweet-scented and gentle.

“What do you say?”

“...I think I’m ready to let go now.”

The hand lying on his chest began to shine, slowly fading into particles of light. Axl continued to stroke soft hair in a rhythm, feeling the weight slowly begin to lessen.

“Go make lots of friends in heaven, okay?” He said. “And tell Delilah I said hi.”

“Haha. I will.” His laugh was high and soft, like bells. As the light traveled up his legs and down his arms, Bedman pressed his eyes shut and smiled. 

“And...Axl? Thank you.”

“Huh? What for?”

“For being my first real friend.”

He watched fragments catch the light as they swirled into the sky, twinkling in all the colors of the rainbow as they gradually vanished into nothing.

Axl felt himself smile as he settled back into the hammock, letting the gentle rocking and the sound of waves carry him off to sleep.

Soon enough, he’d wake in a white room that smelled of disinfectant and soap, where the light burned his eyes and every part of him ached. 

But until then, he merely dreamed.

And until then, everything was beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> I found writing this to be remarkably cathartic. Because sometimes we all need emotional validation from a British time traveler in jorts.


End file.
